The CW is giving viewers an early taste of NASCAR coverage, adding eight Xfinity Series races to the fall schedule ahead of the 2025 start of a 6-year rights deal.
The run of season-ending races will start September 20 in the Xfinity Series Championship from Phoenix Raceway on Saturday, November 9. NBC Sports will handle production, with Rick Allen serving as lead race announcer alongside analysts Jeff Burton and Steve Letarte, and NBC Sports VP of Motorsports Jeff Behnke in charge of production.
The CW announced last summer that it will will take over exclusive rights in 2025 to the NASCAR Xfinity Series, which is on the next tier down from NASCAR’s main Cup Series but nonetheless has an avid fan base. Most of the Xfinity Series drivers are young up-and-comers in the sport, and the races take place in major cities and on many well-established tracks.
The rights deal will bring 33 live races, as well as practice and qualifying events, to the network through 2031. Stock-car racing, along with LIV Golf and college sports, has been added to the CW lineup in recent months as part of a broader programming shift initiated by Nexstar Media Group. The company bought a 75% stake in the network in 2022 and has pivoted away from the expensive scripted dramas favored by prior owners Paramount and Warner Bros Discovery, each of which retains a 12.5% interest in the network.
The CW pact will be the first time in series history that every NASCAR Xfinity Series race will be available on free, over-the-air broadcast television. Beginning in 2025, the Xfinity Series races and ancillary content will be fully produced by the NASCAR Productions group.
“As The CW prepares to be the new broadcast home of the NASCAR Xfinity Series in 2025, we want to thank our partners at the league and at NBC Sports for welcoming the network into the NASCAR broadcast family and for the early opportunity to showcase these thrilling final eight Xfinity Series races of the season,” CW President Dennis Miller said. “We can’t wait to give racing fans an early preview of all the exciting action the NASCAR Xfinity Series has to offer on The CW and we look forward to establishing the network as a new destination for live motorsports.”
“We have incredible media partners who collaborate at an exceptional level to showcase the excitement of live NASCAR racing,” said Brian Herbst, NASCAR SVP, Media and Productions. “We’re looking forward to having The CW get a head start as the home of the NASCAR Xfinity Series with the help of NBC Sports and continuing to deliver our fans thrilling on-track action.”
NBC Sports President Rick Cordella described the fall slate as a “sneak peek” that would help “the transition for fans to watch the Xfinity Series on The CW full-time in 2025.”